A £25 million funding competition will offer grants to innovative
businesses with projects to develop batteries for future electric
vehicles.
Funding is provided by UK
Research and Innovation and delivered by Innovate UK.
A growing demand and global market
There is growing global demand for fully electric and zero
emission vehicles, with the market estimated to be worth £5
billion in the UK and £50 billion in Europe by 2025.
The Faraday battery
challenge is a £246 million investment to bring forward
the next generation of electric vehicles. These will be powered
by high-performance batteries that are cost-effective,
lightweight, durable and safe, and can be recycled.
Clean tech start up, Brill Power is leading
a project to receive funding under a previous Faraday battery
challenge competition. Its battery control and management
technology could extend the life of lithium-ion batteries by 60%,
managing individual cells in a battery pack and allowing these to
be replaced as needed.
It is part of the Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund, which brings together the research base and
businesses to tackle the biggest industrial and societal
challenges.
This latest competition follows an announcement by the Prime
Minister, of an additional £106 million
package for research and development in cleaner battery, vehicle
and refuelling technology.
Scale up development and build the supply chain
This competition is to support business-led research and
development to improve batteries for automotive applications.
There are 2 opportunities to apply, depending on the stage of
your project, which are:
- up to £23 million for industrial research and development
- up to £2 million for feasibility studies
In both opportunities projects should aim to:
- make it easier to scale up battery production and use
- build the UK supply chain
Projects should address technical and commercial challenges,
including:
- reducing costs at the cell and pack level, and minimising
manufacturing costs
- increasing the energy density per cell
- increasing the power density per pack
- eliminating thermal runaway risks to enhance safety
- lengthening the cell and pack life in first-life applications
- broadening the temperature ranges that a pack can efficiently
operate at
- creating new models to predict range and battery health
- improving recyclability, including design, reuse and
recycling, towards 95% pack recyclability
Ideas that bring new investment and businesses to the UK and have
the potential to increase productivity, competitiveness and
growth are particularly encouraged.
- the competition opens on 17 September 2018 and the deadline
for applications is midday on 12 December 2018
- to lead a project you must be a UK-based business or research
and technology organisation. You can collaborate with other
businesses, academic organisations, charities, public sector or
research and technology organisations
- projects can have total costs of between £500,000 and £15
million and last between 3 and 18 months
- businesses could get up to 70% of their eligible project
costs
- if your application meets a quality threshold you will be
invited to an interview panel between 4 to 12 February
- you can register to attend one of the briefing events taking
place during September 2018 to find out more about the
competition, how to make an application and meet potential
partners
- the competition opens on 17 September 2018 and the deadline
for applications is midday on 12 December 2018
- to lead a project you must be a UK-based business or research
and technology organisation. You can collaborate with other
businesses, academic organisations, charities, public sector or
research and technology organisations
- projects can have total costs of up to £500,000 and last
between 3 and 12 months
- businesses could get up to 70% of their eligible project
costs
- you can register to attend one of the briefing events taking
place during September 2018 to find out more about the
competition, how to make an application and meet potential
partners
